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Delayed Flight in New Areas?

At the Blizzcon 2017 Q and A this year we got a question about flight in new areas. And again we got the same ole, same ole about how we were supposed to “Experience the New Content from the Ground At Least Once.” Well I’m not buying it actually.

Have you noticed how as soon as game play is slowed down in the slightest, you find a flight master who can take you right where you need to go for free? And have you noticed the new Legion item called a “Flight Master’s Whistle” that requests a pickup to the nearest flight master. Why not just give flight instead of the dumb whistle?

At least, starting with WoD, we can earn Flight for the entire account once. But two problems. One: They have not fixed Pandaria flight account wide. And that is a Big Gold Sink and grind for Alts leveling through Pandaria. I admit that Outland flight is cheap, and they wanna charge to fly back in Azeroth, I guess. I have been buying Pandaria flight for my Alts as I level out of Pandaria, but why? I ask myself why I need flight at the end of the grind, admittedly short, through this expansion. From now on, I’ll buy Pandarin flight when and if I bring this Alt back to Pandaria for some reason. I have all the transmog gear I want from here. Maybe not all the mounts, but I have alts enough to bring back for those.

Two: With my Heirloom Set, and only playing while “Rested”, I’m reaching 90 about the time that I am ready to leave the Jade Forest. So I get to experience all that content from the air anyway, with my first toon to Pandaria. Heirlooms kinda trashed the idea of seeing it all from the ground first anyway. If you still wanna do all of Pandaria, you have to decide to do it from the ground. You have the option of flying through the rest of it. I guess that was why they made Draenor Pathfinder such a pain. Well not actually. Took me 3 days on my Demon Hunter. The long grind for rep in Tanaan Forest has short cuts as I mentioned back in that post.

After reaching 90, I used to finish the Temple of the White Tiger quest and then fight my way to my faction hub in Vale of Eternal Blossoms. But then I realized that when you reach 90, your faction hub is added to your flight list so you can fly directly there for Bank, Transmog or City Portals, Flight Training or whatever without doing the Temple of the White Tiger quest. Finishing with one out of seven zones is not bad. A couple of times, I ground an Alt to 91, but it’s a long slog since the XP from quests is really nerfed at 90 and the Draenor starter scenario is completely reasonable at 90 with Heirlooms.

So my point is that I’m not really buying this “See It From the Ground First” argument. At this point I get to see all the “new areas” of Pandaria from the Air because I’ve reached 90 and could buy Flight if I wanted to. The game already adds flight whenever “They think you should want it” rather than leaving it to me to decide. And it’s time to modernize Pandaria flight to give it to the entire account once you get it.

Remember how I brought a Demon Hunter to Draenor to kick butt and get flight for the account. Well, with all the Alts I have, it might take so long that to get everyone up to speed that I might just use a 9.0 toon to get flight in 8.0. Besides, I like seeing the game from the Air.